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The American tenor, Gregory Church, earned the Bachelor of Music degree at Wingate University in North Carolina, and the Master of Church Music with a second major in Vocal Perfromance at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently he is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
Gregory Church has performed widely in oratorio, concert, and opera with symphonies and opera companies throughout the USA, including performances in Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Texas and North Dakota. He has performed as tenor solois in Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah in North Dakota and Quincy, Illinois; L.v. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in South Carolina; J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243); and in George Frideric Handel's Messiah in various cities.
Gregory Church has to his credit three world premiere performances. Audiences in Louisville saw him create the role of Joseph in Robert Sterling's church music drama Two from Galilee, as well as the role of Jesus in God's Love Song by Phillip Landgrave. Most recently he was featured as tenor soloist in the completed version of a Credo fragment begun by Mozart for his Mass in C major, k. 377. The Credo, performed in Abilene, was completed by composer and Mozart specialist Murl Sickbert at Hardin-Simmons University.
Other recent performances include the roles of Jenik in The Bartered Bride by Smetana, and Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. Mr. Church's musical theatre credits include performances of Lun tha in The King and I, James in Shenandoah, and Joseph in Andrew Lloyd-Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He has also appeared as tenor aria soloist in Haydn's Creation, and J.S. Bach's St. John Passion ( BWV 245).
This past year saw Gregory Church's first performances as musical director and conductor of the Opera Workshop at the HPU School of Music & Fine Arts. His conducting credits include Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, and Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim. He was also musical director and conductor of the Sanctuary Choir and Orchestra at First Baptist Church Brownwood for their Christmas musical presentation Canticle of Joy by Joseph Martin.
Upcoming events include Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, a concert tour with the Abilene Collegiate Orchestra in February and March, as well as recital engagements in Brownwood and Lubbock.
Gregory Church is Assistant Professor of Music in Voice at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, where he is in his third year of teaching. |
